


On Qo'noS

by Lionessinthedark



Series: Star Trek into darkness.....a bit different [16]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Death (but it is Khan!), Khan is not a bad guy after all, Post-Star Trek: Into Darkness, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 02:47:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4462580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionessinthedark/pseuds/Lionessinthedark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They fight the Emperor's soldiers and Khan does what he is made for...and is good at it. A discovery strains the relationship he has with Krell to the bursting point and beyond.</p><p> </p><p>And.....when they speak Klingonese it is NOT in italic in this text.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter one

Khan was standing on a cliff in the Ketha province’s mountain area on Qo’noS, looking down on the small Klingon squad walking down the road. He was dressed almost in the way he had been dressed back in time, when he had saved Jim, Spock and most of the others from USS Enterprise so many years ago. The harsh climate in these mountain-areas where the ecological collapse was most prominent made it necessary to wear several layers of protective clothing. 

It still amazed Khan how contradictive the Klingon society was. On one hand very modern with spaceships capable of warp and advanced weapons and on the other hand squads walking on their feet and villages that could have been taken from a movie from the 20th century about the middle age: cottages, water from wells and food cooked over open fire and then very contradictive almost anachronistic: something similar to a Padd in the corner. But why on earth did they not use vehicles instead of travelling on Shank’s mares?

He gave the signals to the rest of his group....”Wait!”

It was this he had been made for: war......the tactics, the planning, the violence and the calculating and he had to admit that he enjoyed it. To see his planning and his tactics work excellent. To be able to outmanoeuvre the Emperors armies as they had been able to do during the last 4 months. 

His guerrilla-war-tactic worked so excellent having less than 200 soldiers and because Krell had proven himself so different from the Emperor, they had gained not the loyalty from the aristocracy but from the common people and well actually from the lower aristocracy as well. Krell’s promise of an alternation....the first seeds of democracy...had gained the secret loyalty from more than 75% of the population of the planets in the Klingon Empire. But not on Qo’noS.........Qo’noS had proven itself more difficult than Krell had expected. The strange mixed almost feudal Klingon society....and it was never more distinct than on Qo’noS....made it difficult to gain followers there. The aristocracy didn’t want to lose privileges and the common people didn’t dare to go against their masters. And the smaller aristocracy that wanted to follow Krell didn’t exist on Qo’noS. Nearly all development was only to be seen on Qo’noS and a lot of the wealth in the Klingon Empire ended on there too ....and in the treasury chambers of the Emperor. And it was such a waste. If just a fraction of all that wealth would be used out on the other planets and amongst common people for roads, education, hospitals and schools there would still be plenty left for the Emperor and the aristocracy. Krell had learned a lot from Khan during their 4 months together and he was ready to change the distribution of wealth, but slowly......otherwise the aristocracy could throw him of the throne even if they could understand the necessity of joining the Federation. Khan had told Krell that the Federation of course would be accommodating the slow change of the Klingon society.

Khan looked again over the rim of the cliff.......and gave signal to attack.

He would jump down from the height......no problem since he in no way would be harmed.....he had jumped from higher heights before......and his action would surprise the squad and give the rest of Krell’s soldiers time to intervene.

But they never had a chance......Khan jumped and started attacking.....having something like the Boolean gun he had had on Qo’noS when he eliminated the Klingons, who attacked the people from the USS Enterprise. And as Krell’s soldiers came round the cliff they could see that there was no reason to intervene. It was like a ballet......a strange lethal dance... to watch Khan’s abilities and after less than 2 minutes he looked around and discovered his own soldiers just watching him and all the Emperor’s dead soldiers. 

Khan smiled and said: "Do you expect me to do all the work?"

And the second in command, K’tal, just smiled back and said: “No reason to interfere.....you were having a good time!”

And Khan had to admit....yes he had had a good time...even if it was morally wrong to kill others. His excuse was that the squad had terrorized several of the small villages. Being the Emperor’s soldiers they thought themselves above others and especially the common people and felt free to take their food and sometimes rape their women.  
______________________

Khan was lying on a cliff behind a big stone in the Mekrovak-region and looked at the facility through a pair of field glasses. Yeah...he was right. It was a tellurian facility.....humans working there...and Klingons. The whole calamity “smelled” of “Section 31” and in that case he had to be honest towards Krell.

He crawled backwards until he was hidden behind the big stone before he rose to his feet and walked towards Krell, who had been waiting for him.  
“It was what I feared.....It is tellurian....and it is “Section 31”.......and in that case it is essential that it is totally destroyed...even if it’ll cost Klingon lives”

“Why?”

“What I’m going to tell you now is a secret......you can’t tell your men right now. Maybe later. OK?”

Krell looked at Khan. Khan had never not shown him the respect he “deserved” as a prince, but during the last 4 months and of course before that...in the brig of the Enterprise....he acted more as Krell’s equal than as a subordinate. Krell had gone used to that......and it had tainted his men’s manners towards him as well.....and Krell liked it. He had hated the distance the court-protocol had made between him and his “friends” and he liked it even more when his soldiers sometimes forgot that he was a prince and he had made a solemn oath to himself never to be such a distant and embossed “arsehole” as his father and brothers....and a lot of the aristocracy.... had been.

“It’s OK” he said.

Khan pointed at the cliff that covered the sight to the facility and asked: “Just humour me and answer my question: what is worst in a war...a dead soldier or a wounded or sick soldier?”

Krell looked a Khan and answered: “Of course a wounded or sick soldier. A dead soldier you can leave behind, but even being pragmatic a wounded or sick soldier might recover and be able to fight again. Only if you have an innumerable amount of soldiers, you wouldn’t have to care about any but the functioning ones. That is common knowledge!”

Khan pointed towards the hidden facility: “They have developed a virus that is contained in that facility, which only affects Klingons. It prevents former soldiers from being born as it destroys the babies in mother’s womb. Not by killing them, but by making them handicapped: deaf or blind or missing limbs. Or just by diminishing their intellectual abilities severely. If grown-ups are contaminated they’ll get ill and might recover, but weakened and an estimate is that about 70% would die later because this disease alters their immune-system. It is a virus that combines the worst part of diseases that have tormented Earth for centuries. That is why I ask your permission to go down and totally destroy that facility even if I might kill the innocent Klingons which are working there.”

Krell looked at him...frowning: “And you know that because....?”

Khan looked at Krell and then he looked towards the facility and waited a few seconds before he answered: “I know that you are going to hate me for what I’m going to say. This is not an excuse, but an explanation: Marcus forced me.....I was the one who invented that virus. Or rather.....I made the beginning of the experiment. The others didn’t know enough about gene-manipulation! Later I found evidence that they had continued the work. There was this Klingon family, a father, a mother...pregnant and their, by tellurian standard, 12 year old daughter. In your years she was about 8 years old. They were exposed to the disease. The father survived but became blind. The mother and the unborn child died” 

“Continue!” said Krell, every emotion gone from his voice.

Khan cast a quick glance in Krell’s direction and continued: “The girl was raped by one of the guards and when she was 2 months pregnant she was killed too, so they could observe how the foetus had developed. It was very deformed.....I....”

Khan was clearly affected: “....I wasn’t a part of the...the experiment then. I was removed from the experiment as soon as I had made the initial experiments with the virus....and I myself became a lab-rat. I was a lab-rat for a month I think and then I was returned to the weapon-department as soon as I had recovered. That was when I concealed the rest of the cryo-tubes in the torpedoes and tried to flee...”

He turned around and looked at Krell: “I know it was wrong to choose my people’s 72 lives over billions of Klingon lives....and I want to make atonement for my participation in this almost genocide-plan.....so please...let me destroy that facility!”

Krell looked at him and said in a very cold voice: “You understand that I cannot let you live after what you have told me? No matter what Marcus did to you? And I’m not interested in what he did!”

Khan looked at him: “I understand.....and accept it. But only if you are sure that you can manage the last part of the plan without my help. And I’m the only one who would have a chance given the present circumstances to destroy that facility!”


	2. Chapter 2

The fire-ball and the smoke of the huge explosion was behind Khan as he leapt down from the huge rock and landed in front of Krell, who had been waiting for him. The rest of their squad was in a cave not far away.

They just looked at each other and the Khan slowly put his weapon down without looking away from Krell’s eyes.

He only said: “Done! Every piece of that virus is gone” and the nothing more...just stood there waiting.

Krell looked at him with a frown: “Undress!” he spat out. He could barely speak from rage. When he looked at Khan he didn’t see the man who had helped him....his brother in arms..... any more. He just saw the monster that had made that lethal virus, which could have destroyed his people.

Khan just looked at him: “All of it?”

“Upper body!”

And Khan removed the clothing on his upper body and stood there in the everlasting cold wind. His body immediately turned up his body temperature which prevented him from trembling of the abrupt drop in temperature.

“You came back....You are not going to fight.....to beg?” asked Krell a bit astonished.

Khan just looked at him: “Where would I go? And the fight....I’m dispensable....you are not. And begging would make no difference. And why should I? When I am myself disgusted with what I did? No matter what Marcus did to me or mine it can’t excuse that I valued 73 lives higher than the billions of your people!”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and opened his eyes again: “If you want my life as retaliation for what I did...I wouldn’t argue, but accept it! What I helped “Section 31” to achieve was wrong on so many levels!”

Krell put his hand on Khan’s shoulder and looked him into his eyes and spoke in ancient Klingonese: “Your actions have taken away your honour. Do you accept death?”

And Khan who had a feeling that he was partaking in some kind of ritual looked at Krell’s other hand and saw a nasty looking broad-bladed knife hovering in front of his sternum.

He looked up again and looked Krell directly in to his eyes and said: “Yes” and he kept his eyes open as Krell slowly pressed the knife upwards against his heart. He didn’t flinch and didn’t close his eyes before the knife had cut his heart open and caused blood to enter his lungs and then he coughed up a small amount of blood and went slack.

Krell withdraw the knife and threw it on the ground. He would have thought that he would have felt joy....satisfaction....saturation......But he just felt empty.

_______________________

His men looked up in shock as he staggered into the cave and his second in command, K’tal, rose and supported him.

“We heard that explosion.....and Khan .....is he hurt?....and that blood?......is it yours?”.....  
Krell was bombarded with a lot of questions but his men turned completely silent as he told them about the facility...and Khan’s role in it all....and his fate.

K’tal just looked at Krell and said what a lot of the men in the cave thought but hadn’t the guts to say out loud: “My prince.......I’m not sure you did the right thing!”

Krell looked at K’tal and said: “Neither am I!”  
___________________

They discussed a lot of things in that cave.......amongst other things how they should collect Khan’s body. They couldn’t just leave it there to be found by the Emperors soldiers. And The Emperor’s soldier would come.....when they learned about the explosion.

But when Krell and his squad came to the spot where Krell had killed Khan, they found Khan sitting up against a big stone with his leg stretched out in front of him. His hands were in his lab, holding the knife. He was pale, blood around his mouth and still with a big wound in his chest....still bleeding, but closing in front of their very eyes. 

He looked at Krell and said:  
“I’m afraid that you’ll have to give it another try, if you want me dead. I suppose if you cut out my lungs and heart I’ll suffer brain damage because of lack of oxygen until they grow back. The most efficient way would be to decapitate me though.” 

And he reached out and tried to give Krell the knife back with the handle first.

Krell looked around and his soldiers nodded. The possibility they had discussed in the cave as a possibility instead of Krell killing Khan could be made now.

Krell pointed at the stone Khan was sitting against: “It’ll do. Khan....turn around and kneel. Head placed on the surface! Hands behind your back!”

Khan looked at him a few seconds and the he obeyed......he was still exhausted, so he almost crawled. A lot of his blood had saturated the dust on the ground and he could feel the blood loss.

One of the soldiers produced a sword from a scabbard on his back.

Khan just looked at him.

“Turn your head away” said Krell.

“I’m not afraid of death”, said Khan.

“Turn it away...it is an order!”

Khan turned his head away....now facing one of the other soldiers who had moved and was standing on the other side.

As Krell began to speak, Khan again felt that he did partake in some old and strange ritual as both Krell and the soldiers spoke in ancient Klingonese:  
“Has this man lost the right to his life?”

And the soldiers answered: “He has”

“And his life?”

“His life now belongs to the Emperor”

“Is he bound?”

“Only by his honour!”

And then Krell asked Khan directly: “Do you accept my verdict?” and the same question again in modern Klingonese.

Khan answered in ancient Klingonese...of course he had used some time to learn that too!: “I do!”

The soldier touched his neck with the sword as if he would make a better aim and lifted it again.........And the sword made its way towards Khan’s neck

 

......and missed.

Krell went over to the kneeling Khan gave him his hand and pulled him up on his feet: “He has made atonement!”....again in ancient Klingonese and the soldiers answered: “He has...but the blade is still thirsty!”

Krell still supported Khan but Khan pushed him away and said in modern Klingonese: “I’m almost recovered......Am I supposed to slice my own throat? It would still not kill me!” 

Krell looked at him: “I made a huge mistake. I do not want you to be dead......you have eradicated your wrongdoings by blowing up that facility and by partaking in this ritual. You may choose a new name when the ritual is finished.”

Khan was given the sword and looked at Krell for guidance: “But I still have to put some of my blood on the blade?”

“You do” and Krell showed Khan his own forearm where a small scar was to be seen.

“Oh...I see”, said Khan and again his incredible strength was restored and was to be seen as he held the heavy sword out in one arm and slowly pressed his left arm against the blade.   
He asked: “How severe?”

“Enough to bleed”

And the soldiers and Krell looked disturbed as Khan cut a rather deep cut in his arm, almost to the bone. One of the soldiers took the sword away and gave it to Krell and another brought some dried plants. Krell made a smaller cut on his own arm and both him and Khan had the dried plants sauntered over their wounds and then Krell pressed his wound against Khan’s. And Khan felt something like a mind-meld. He could feel Krell’s emotions and thoughts.

_*It is the plants, right?* ___

___*The plants and our blood mingling, yes* _was the answer in his head.__ _ _

____When they moved their arms away from each other, Khan’s wound was already closing and the dried plant material was pushed out and as Krell looked at his arm. His wound had almost closed itself too._ _ _ _

____“Is that your doing?” Krell asked and pointed at his arm._ _ _ _

____Khan smiled: “Yeah...and my nano-robots!”_ _ _ _

____Khan was supposed to find another Klingon name for himself after the ceremony but he said that he had been given so many names that he would prefer to keep his own. On the document however his name was written as “Kang” but the soldiers soon forgot and called him Khan again._ _ _ _

____When they were back in the caves Khan asked Krell with whom he had made that ritual the first time and Krell told about his friend, that his father later had killed:_ _ _ _

____“You see, Khan, we are 7 brothers, but not with the same mother. My father is an old-fashioned man and has a harem. My brothers and I have 7 different mothers, and the women got pregnant at about the same time except from mine. 4 of my brothers are born the same year....our years, not yours. I’m the youngest and the distance between me and my youngest brother is 6 of our years.....almost 10 of yours. My brothers had each other but I being the youngest didn’t have any “fine” enough to play with. I got a friend though from the lower aristocracy but when my father found out that we had made that ritual....not because we had “lost honour” but because that would make us brothers, he made me watch as the boy was send away. I later learned that he “unfortunately” died on the journey back home. We had been friends for 5 years and that event taught me to conceal my feelings and I learned to behave like my brothers....arrogantly and disdainfully against those less fortunate than us....that is.......the rest of the universe!”_ _ _ _

____“And it is a ritual to restore honour too, I understand” Khan asked._ _ _ _

____“It is.....if you accept death.....and have no illusion that you could escape that....as you did waiting to be beheaded...then you are seen as reborn, clean of any shame...thus a new name.”_ _ _ _

____“I see” said Khan and continued: “Now I only have to make peace with myself because of what I did! But it is funny. Just as much as you loathe your father and your brothers and the aristocracy for being stuck in an ancient mindset....you are still talking about “honour”._ _ _ _

____Krell smiled back: “It is not everything in that mindset that reeks.......a way to make atonement can’t be that hopeless, can it?”_ _ _ _

____Khan looked at him: “No I suppose not....but there are something that never can be atoned for. What Marcus did to me and mine to force me to cooperate....that can never in a million lives be expiated...never!”_ _ _ _

____Krell looked at Khan and said: “I said that I didn’t want to hear what Marcus did. But I’ve changed my mind. Would you tell me now, please?”_ _ _ _

____Khan closed his eyes and said: “Don’t look upon it as a poor excuse. I chose 72 lives over the billions of lives of your people. It is so morally wrong. But it is an explanation: Marcus had killed some of my people before he asked me to research about that virus and of course I refused. Then one day he forced me to watch a video where one of the youngest augments....a girl....was tortured. “Lasana”....She had been almost 13 on the islands back in the 20th century and wasn’t killed then and she had survived fighting the “Buzzers”. When Marcus’ men tortured her, she was 16 years old, but looked younger......”_ _ _ _

____Khan was now trembling and tears ran down his face: “They made me watch.....and of course I agreed to do the research....but then.......then Marcus told me that my agreement would be in vain. They had tortured her to death more than 2 days prior.......She survived the torture for more than 5 days. They had started on her when I turned down the first order to research. They forced me to watch clips from the torture for 12 hours. After that I agreed....or else they would have started on one of the other young ones......I’m sorry.....I’m so sorry. But I was so worn down at that moment that I couldn’t think clearly any more”_ _ _ _

____Khan looked up: “Forgive me!”_ _ _ _

____Krell looked back.....he couldn’t speak. That Khan had survived such evilness relatively intact without being totally insane just showed how well he had been made. How strong he was._ _ _ _

____Krell knelt beside Khan and touched his arm: “If I had listened to you....how you had been forced....I wouldn’t have killed you in the first place. It is me who is asking for forgiveness. But I sure as hell hope that this is not how people are in the Federation!!!”_ _ _ _

____Khan smiled a little sad smile: “They are not.....Marcus had too much power and they’ve made sure now that no one is ever going to have so much power again”_ _ _ _

____Krell smiled back: “Well, that leaves only my father, right? I’m so glad that you had a “reboot” button, Khan. Before I ever do something out of rage again I’ll think twice, or even more”_ _ _ _

____It looked just as if Khan shrugged of the unpleasant memories and he got back on his feet again. Then he turned towards Krell as he walked towards the opening of the cave: “I’m going hunting. Thank god this is not the Ketha -province. It was hard to find something eatable there. Only by living by the old saying from Earth I managed to survive there for 3 weeks!”_ _ _ _

____“Now I’m curious.....what saying?” Krell wanted to know._ _ _ _

____Khan laughed: “It goes: “if it is liquid....drink it. If it moves.....kill it and eat it, if it is dead fuck it!” I’m not sure if the last part is to be taken literally or just mean that you should leave it!”_ _ _ _

____And then he turned around and went outside just as if he hadn’t been haunted by the bad memories just minutes before._ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I’m not a Trekkie and I’m not sure I’ve got the different races, Empires, Dominions and Federations correct. Not even how they are placed in the Galaxy versus each other.  
> All the stories in my series take place in the Star Trek universe and are in chronological order....in “the alternate reality” and “Post Star Trek into Darkness”, except from the first 2 stories and the main point is that Khan Noonien Singh is not a bad guy after all...or is he? Are there hidden agendas somewhere?  
> Khan’s background story differs from the canon, though.  
> And of course I do not own the characters. They belong to Roddenberry in the first place and Paramount in the second.  
> English is not my native tongue so I excuse if there are failures.


End file.
